Royal jelly strains and queen rearing

[foghornleghorn]

Since it's always said how important it is to have very well fed queen cells in order to rear the highest quality queens, has there ever been any research done on quality of the queen raised by specialist royal jelly lines used in some parts of Italy and China versus normal bees.
Or is a point rapidly reached where it's just excess feed and wasted.

 

[B+.]

Since it's always said how important it is to have very well fed queen cells in order to rear the highest quality queens, has there ever been any research done on quality of the queen raised by specialist royal jelly lines used in some parts of Italy and China versus normal bees.
Or is a point rapidly reached where it's just excess feed and wasted.

Can you please supply more information on this foghornleghorn? I have never heard of there being a difference in the Royal Jelly supplied by different workers.

 

[foghornleghorn]

Can you please supply more information on this foghornleghorn? I have never heard of there being a difference in the Royal Jelly supplied by different workers.

I'll have a look and see if I can get anything, but I do know from two beekeepers that the specialist royal jelly producers won't get the high yield of jelly from bees not selected for it

 

[foghornleghorn]

https://www.researchgate.net/public...llifera_ligustica_Hymenoptera_Apidae_in_China

 

[Poly Hive]

If this is selection is aimed at RJ production does it have any relevance in the real world of UK beekeeping?

PH

 

[foghornleghorn]

If this is selection is aimed at RJ production does it have any relevance in the real world of UK beekeeping?

PH

Would it lead to more productive queens if we were to place grafts into a hive containing these bees which will feed them more is the question

 

[Beefriendly]

Interesting thought.
It's known that queens fed copious amounts of Royal Jelly develop more ovaries/ovarioles than those that are on reduced rations. But as an excess of RJ is fed to queen larvae in any strong colony I don't think it will make any difference. There is a limit to how much food any queen needs.

 

[B+.]

Interesting thought.
It's known that queens fed copious amounts of Royal Jelly develop more ovaries/ovarioles than those that are on reduced rations. But as an excess of RJ is fed to queen larvae in any strong colony I don't think it will make any difference. There is a limit to how much food any queen needs.

I wonder if Hivemaker has any knowledge/experience of this? The idea of "lines" of RJ producing stock is a new one on me.

 

[Poly Hive]

Precisely my thinking. If there is excess RJ left in the emerged cell what else matters really? Whether its a pint or a teaspoon it's done it's job.

HOWEVER if I were producing RJ and a strain of bee did produce that proverbial pint then of course that would be of immense interest.

However I don't.

PH

 

[Finman]

.
Are you going to compete with Vietnam in royal jelly production?
.

 

[B+.]

If there is excess RJ left in the emerged cell what else matters really?

When queens emerge in a Nicot cage inside an incubator, they revisit the cell to clean it out. Sometimes, they can get stuck inside the cell because they can't reverse out. I'm not sure if they do this in nature. It may be that they get all they need from workers or the workers tear down the cell before she has a chance.
I know they are looking for more than just honey when they emerge. Even with honey in the Nicot cage, they will still revisit the cell.

 

[birdsandbees]

When queens emerge in a Nicot cage inside an incubator, they revisit the cell to clean it out. Sometimes, they can get stuck inside the cell because they can't reverse out. I'm not sure if they do this in nature. It may be that they get all they need from workers or the workers tear down the cell before she has a chance.
I know they are looking for more than just honey when they emerge. Even with honey in the Nicot cage, they will still revisit the cell.

I've noticed this too, often they completely clear it out, I wonder if its eaten for nutrition or just the instinct of a newly emerged bee to clean its cell, saying that they don't clean other cells once they are out.

 

[masterBK]

The constituents and their % of royal jelly changes with the age of the larvae being fed.